As soon as the Metro Manila Film Festival was announced over I immediately ran to the nearest cinema and watched James Cameron’s Avatar (right after work, of course).  I had no idea what it was about, I didn’t even see the trailer.  All I knew was that it was a James Cameron film that took almost a decade to make and was inspired by the CGI from the LoTR.

What did I think of it?  One word: beautiful.  It’s ridiculous that all that came from one man’s brain and now I’m sort of regretting my decision not to fork out the extra bucks to see it in 3D (I’m a cheapskate and I seriously didn’t think it’d be that good).  I don’t know how they did it but there was such seamless integration between the CG’s and the actors that it just blew my mind away.

For the first time in months, I actually left the cinemas smiling.  Smiling.  Sure it was all kinds of cheesy and predictable but for some reason, James Cameron made it work.  Although there was one scene at the end where I expected the director to render the main villain unable to use his legs, just for irony’s sake.  But meh, he’s the creative genius and I’m just an audience.

The good thing about the movie was also the bad thing about it: it was very much formulaic.  It almost felt like a Disney film in that aspect that right off the bat you get to see who gets killed and who gets to survive.  But I think that’s also a good thing as the plot wasn’t overly complicated into smithereens.  Personally I think it’s a nod to the director’s self control to keep the plot that simple.

And yeah, people have told me that it was just Pocahontas in 3D, I’m very aware.  BUT since I’ve never actually seen Pocahontas (I’ve only read a 50page comic book that my mother bought m when I was a kid), I can’t really jump into the throng of the masses screaming, “copycat”, now can I?

Another iffy thing about the movie is the fact that personally I felt that the whole thing was just too long.  Sure it was pretty but I think that they could’ve afforded to shave off at least thirty minutes off of the final reel.  There were some parts in the middle that I could’ve lived without seeing.

All in all I’d still give it a 9/10.  I’m still very much willing to see it again in 3D (God-willing).  This movie makes me happy because this was the first official film I’ve seen for 2010 and wow; I think that this is a very good omen for this year, movie-wise.